European Union

The new EU Commission president will tell EU leaders next week that they need to put money behind their pledges for border protection, defence policy and fighting climate change.

Czech prime Minister Andrej Babis will be investigated further for fraud in a case involving EU funds, reversing an earlier decision, the top Czech state attorney said Wednesday. Babis, a billionaire businessman, had been investigated on suspicion of illegally tapping €2m in EU subsidies before he entered politics. He has denied wrongdoing. The EU Commission had also found in an audit a conflict of interest on Babis, Czech media reported.

As leaks and bits of information selectively seep through NATO's meeting room doors, it is the gestures and details that matter and shape the legacy of its summits.

According to the new working methods of the EU Commission, Joseph Borrell, the EU's new foreign policy chief will brief fellow commissioners weekly, as part of commission president Ursula von der Leyen's efforts to make the executive more geopolitically aware. The new commission will also create a new preparatory body, which will coordinate between commissioners tasked with external affairs and internal matters.

The new EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday she is "concerned" about recent developments in Malta, where investigations into the 2017 murder of a journalist have shaken the government, prompting prime minister Joseph Muscat to announce that he would resign in January. "I expect thorough and independent investigation, free from any political interference. It is crucial that all those responsible are brought to justice," she said.

The EU Commission's in-house think tank, the European, will be renamed, IDEA (Inspire, Debate, Engage and Accelerate Action), the commission president Ursula von der Leyen told journalists on Wednesday. The research centre will be restructured, based on the new commission's policy guidelines, and will be used to address geopolitical challenges, the commission chief added.

The new European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, did not mince her words at her first press conference on Wednesday (4 December), criticising a recent proposal of the Finnish EU Presidency for the bloc’s 2021-2027 budget and voicing concern "about the severe cuts in the proposal".

Two Russian diplomats were expelled from Germany on Wednesday after the murder of a Georgian asylum seeker in Berlin, Deutsche Welle reports. German federal prosecutors say there is enough evidence that murder was ordered by either Russia or Chechnya. In August the Georgian man was shot in "an execution style" killing in Kleiner Tiergarten park. Russia called the move "unfriendly".

The Greek government is open to the idea of further Chinese investment into a range of public and private sectors, including in the field of telecommunications, the country's digital minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis, told EURACTIV on Tuesday (3 December).

An open letter to EU leaders from Maltese MEP David Casa on the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder case and prime minister Joseph Muscat.

The expected snap parliamentary elections will likely launch a new democratic era in Azerbaijan, giving the voters a further possibility to advance the reform process, writes Dr. Ceyhun Osmanli.

Just days before the inspirational scientist will receive the Nobel Prize in Stockholm, he underlines that it is "important that scientists are allowed to derive knowledge for its own sake”.

While visiting Paris, American economist Jeremy Rifkin talked to EURACTIV France about his hopes for the new European Commission's Green Deal, while calling for a climate narrative that inspires real change across society.

Three Ukrainian opposition factions have proposed their red lines, including the return of Crimea to Ukraine's full control, ahead of a four-way Normandy summit to be held on in Paris on Monday (9 November).

Policies aimed at integrating environment and climate concerns into Europe’s Common Agricultural Policy have not delivered, according to a report released by the European Environment Agency (EEA).

The European Commission is set to vote on Friday (6 December) on not renewing the approval of two pesticides, chlorpyrifos and chlorpyrifos-methyl, which the EU's food safety agency says may have serious effects on foetuses and children - a claim industry strongly rejects.

How to secure the support of workers in industry for the European Green Deal? Make it social! IndustriAll European Trade union has identified the key requirements to secure their support for what is announced as the flagship initiative of the new European Commission.

A report of the European Court of Auditors published on Wednesday concludes that the EU needs to strengthen and better monitor its legal requirements for national budgetary frameworks. It highlights the risk of inconsistency between the European Commission's and independent bodies' assessment of member states compliance with EU fiscal rules. "The EU legal framework governing national budgetary frameworks leaves room for improvement," said Mihails Kozlovs, responsible of the report.

The EU is leading the science-based fight against climate change and it will also lead on science-based plant innovation, writes former EU Health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis.

Making our buildings climate-proof is not only about reducing the 36% of CO2 emissions they are responsible for, but about doing so while caring for the people that live in them, writes Oliver Rapf.